A Type of Heaven
by atearsarahjane
Summary: A long held family secret changes everything at Nonnatus House
1. Chapter 1

**For Sarah who was complaining about a lack of fic and my Hannah's who are mourning the end of Miranda with me. From an idea suggested by Sarah (rockbird86)**

* * *

'Im sorry but...well I'm rather nosy and I've been wondering about something.' Trixie said tentatively from her seat next to Shelagh on the sofa at Nonnatus House. Patrick and Shelagh had brought baby Angela over for cooing and had had been greatly fulfilled in that aim. Only now, several hours after they first turned up had Shelagh had her daughter returned to her arms.  
'I am aware. Go ahead.' Shelagh smiled looking up from the darling in her arms.  
'Are you going to tell Angela she's adopted? What if she wants to find her birth parents when she's older?'  
'Yes. We are.' Shelagh nodded. 'And we will support any decision she makes. Not many people know this but I was adopted myself. My parents always told me of how I grew inside another Mummy, how that Mummy had loved me enough to let me go to them, how it didn't make them love me any less than my brother and sister even they were biologically theirs. I loved them fiercely, it never mattered to me either that I was not born to them. I hope that we can raise Angela the same way.' Shelagh revealed.  
'I didn't know.' Trixie gasped. Everyone else beside the Turners nodded.  
'I didn't even realise you had siblings.' Sister Evangelina said stunned.  
'They died when I was a child.'  
'I'm sorry.' The nun reached across and squeezed her hand.  
'Thank you.'  
'Did you ever go in search for your biological parents?' Patsy asked, fascinated.  
'I did. My mother died when I was eight and my father when I was sixteen so I was sent to live with my Aunt in Devon which is where I had lived for the first year of my life and had been adopted from. Seeing as I was so close to my origins and feeling rather unsure of my place in the world I decided to investigate. Auntie had been living with my parents before they moved back to Aberdeen so she remembered the adoption process. However I never managed to find out who my parents were, not really. I was left on the doorstep of the local church. My mother had left me with a bottle. I was 5 months old.'  
'Sister she leave a note or anything?'  
'Yes. She had been raped and I was a product of that.'  
'Oh Shelagh.'  
'She didn't feel like she could love me as much as I deserved so she let me go. I wasn't there on the doorstep long. They think only about 3 minutes and it was a warm night so I was fine. The vicars wife found me and took me in. Merely weeks later they adopted me after a brief but fruitless search for my biological mother. I have no desire to meet my biological father but it would be nice to know who the woman I came from was. All I have of her in the note and a necklace she left with me.' She sighed sadly.  
'A necklace?'  
'Family heirloom apparently. It's half of an interlocking pair. She has the other half. My parents always told me to wear it, to keep my other mother in my heart. Aside from my time as Sister Bernadette I have never taken it off.' Shelagh pulled out a necklace from under her collar. Silently Sister Julienne rose and left the room unseen by the others.  
'Golly. That's rather an exciting story.' Patsy smiled. She was almost jealous. Having lost her own family at a young age she was more than familiar with the confusion and feeling of not having a set place in the world. But Shelagh had a second chance of sorts, she still had a mother. Not that her own mother was lacking in anyway, Charlotte Mount had been the best mother she could have hoped for. Patsy wouldn't have traded her for anything.  
'Indeed. So I know, somewhat, what Angela will go through though I thoroughly intend to live a long time beyond her 8th birthday. You're never getting rid of me my darling girl.' She cooed at her daughter.  
'I had absolutely no idea. We know so little about you really.'  
'Well I was hardly allowed to blab about myself whilst I was a nun.'  
'True.' They laughed softly.  
'We sent a letter to her biological mother via the adoption society, telling her her daughter was okay, that her daughter was loved and safe and happy. I'd like to think had it been possible my first mother would have liked to have known I was okay.'  
'I'm sure.'  
'She'd be very proud of you my love.' Patrick said wrapping his arm around her shoulder.  
'Thank you. Sister are you okay?' Shelagh frowned as Sister Julienne walked back into the room deathly pale.  
'That Devonshire town you were left in? What was it called?'  
'Ottery St Mary. Why?'  
'I had to be sure.' The nun walked over to face her and held out a chain. Shelagh recognised it immediately. 'The other half of my necklace. My mother's necklace. Oh Sister did you know her? Do you know own who she is? Where is she?' Shelagh jumped up, a long forgotten longing of excitement taking seed in her belly.  
'Oh my darling girl.' Sister Julienne started crying.  
'Sister? What is it? Is she dead? Is that how you came to have her necklace.'  
'Shelagh...it's me. I'm your mother.'

* * *

**Reviews appreciated xxx**

**Happy New Year Everyone. Here's to a good one**


	2. Chapter 2

**This was meant to be uploaded a few days ago but I was never quote happy with it. Hope this is alright.**

**For my favourite ladies xx**

* * *

A shocked silence defended on the room. No one knew where to look-Shelagh or Sister Julienne. The blonde was staring slack jawed at the nun. The nun was staring back at her anxiously, more nervous than anyone had ever seen her. But at the same time more peaceful than they had ever seen her. What must it have been like for her giving up her baby? What must she be feeling? Her daughter was in front of her, but in the form of a woman she had known intimately for over a decade! Slowly Patrick stood, his face plastered with his own shock, and took his daughter out of his wife's arms. He knew that she would never let harm come to the babe but she had had a massive shock. She may need her arms or start waving wildly. The movement jogged Shelagh out of her shocked trance.

'I'm sorry?' Shelagh gaped. 'I'm sure I must have misheard you Sister.'  
'32 years ago I left my 5 month old daughter on the steps of the local church in Ottery St Mary with a letter and a necklace that formed a pair with mine. That necklace. Shelagh you are my daughter. I am your biological mother.'  
'I... I.' Shelagh stuttered, desperately grasping for words within the garbled chaos of thoughts running through her head.  
'I think maybe we should leave you two alone.' Sister Evangelina said stunned. Everyone else nodded and filed out except Patrick who turned back to Shelagh.  
'I'll be here in a heartbeat if you need me love. Just shout.' He lay a kiss to the side of her head, for she was still stuck solid staring at her newly discovered mother, before joining the others in another room.  
'Shelagh?'  
'You're my mother?' She dropped back onto the sofa. Sister Julienne rushed to sit beside her, aching to reach out and take her long lost little girl into her arms but painfully aware of how badly and how quickly the situation could deteriorate if she pushed too far too fast.  
'Yes. I am.'  
'My real life bona fide, in the flesh, biological mother? The woman who carried me for 9 months, who raised me for 5.'  
'It was closer to 8 months carrying you. You were rather impatient.' Sister smiled reminiscing.  
'You left me in a doorway?'  
'I was watching you the whole time. I didn't leave my hiding place until long after your mother took you inside. I came back every day for a month, I wanted to make sure you were okay, that you were safe and you were loved. I didn't arrive in the town until the day I left you so nobody knew who I was. As far as they knew I was the kindly woman who popped in a few times. I don't think they ever found out about the other times I would watch you. I couldn't stay. It became too hard to look at you. Your parents were so wonderful towards you, you were so happy. You didn't need me and it broke my heart. I loved you so much. So I ran as far away as I could to London. I became a nun and ended up here.'  
'You loved me?'  
'My darling girl of course I did. You were the best thing that ever happened to me. The 5 months we spent together were the happiest of my life.'  
'Then why...you were 30 and intelligent, I'm sure you could have found a job. I'm sure you must have had someone you trusted who could have looked after me whilst you were out.' She said confused. She wasn't angry as such, she was still to stunned for anything other than  
'I didn't have anyone but you. If there had been even the slightest chance that I thought I could keep you in my arms and never have to let go without you suffering for it then I would have never let you out of them for a second. When I told my parents that I'd been... and I was pregnant they didn't believe me. They thought I was covering up for an illicit tryst. They called me a slut and a harlot and made sure the entire local area knew it. I lost my job and I couldn't get another one anywhere nearby. I had to leave everyone and everything I knew behind. I had only my savings from my job and any small jobs I could pick up as I moved from place to place trying to find us a home. Eventually I got too big to work and then you were born. Nobody would hire an unmarried woman with a very noisy baby so our funds were drained quickly. I was terrified somebody would take you away from me as we got poorer and poorer. Then I found Ottery St Mary and I saw the vicar with his wife and children. They were happy. You deserved that. I didn't leave you immediately. For the next month we travelled around east Devon but I could never forget that family. Then I could no longer afford to feed you. I'd barely been eating as it was so you could but the money ran dry. So I made the hardest decision of my life. I let you go.'  
'Do you...'  
'Do I what?'  
'Do you still love me? As a baby I mean not as the woman you've known.'  
'Yes!' Sister Julienne cried emphatically. 'I never stopped loving you, I never stopped thinking of you, of praying for you. Not a day has gone by when I haven't missed you and wished I could know how you were. But I love you as Shelagh too. As the woman who I came to love as my own despite biology..or so I thought. I suppose I may have been filling the you shaped hole in my life with…well…you.'  
'Oh. Wow.'  
'What do you think? I hope I'm not too much of a disappointment.' She said nervously. Shelagh looked up horrified.  
'What? No! Of course not! I couldn't be happier. My quasi-mother is my actual mother! It's just a shock. I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop. You're really my mother?' Shelagh asked, a wide grin beginning to spread across her face.  
'Yes my darling daughter. I'm your Mother.'  
'Oh Mother.' Shelagh burst into tears and fell into her mother's arms. Sister Julienne wrapped them tightly around the little girl she had longed to hold in her arms again for so many painful years. Her little girl. Her baby daughter.  
'Oh daughter. I've missed you so much.' They cried into each other for several minutes, both just taking in the reality of the situation they both found themselves. Both had been looking for something and accidentally found it in the right person.  
'I can't believe it.' Shelagh said into her mother's neck. 'I just can't believe it.'  
'You're really truly happy about this?!  
'Of course. I couldn't be prouder to be your daughter. And you still helped raise me in a way. I grew up a lot and became the woman I am today because of you. Your guidance helped me not only to become a better nuns but a better person. You helped me to become Shelagh again, you helped me on my path to being Mrs Turner. You helped me when I thought we might lose Timothy, you helped me when I was heartbroken over my barrenness, you helped me when I thought my marriage was in trouble, you helped me with my panic over suddenly being a mother to a tiny person who needed me. Ever since we met you have become like a mother to me. I never expected to find my birth mother and Mum had died. I was sure they would approve of me finding one on my own. And I did. It's you, my mother of the past decade, of my early months and of the future.'  
'Oh my beautiful baby girl. You are so wonderful. I couldn't ask for a better daughter. I've longed for this day for so many years. So many nights I cried myself to sleep wanting you back in my arms. There's so much I should have been there for-your first words, your first steps, your first day of school, your first heartbreak, you first day in London, your first day at nursing school.'  
'I was never alone. There was always someone there to love and support me. And you _were_ there with me too, I told you-i never took this necklace off except for my time as Sister Bernadette.'  
'I love you so much.'  
'I love you too...Mum.' Shelagh said nervously. Sister Julienne burst into fresh sobs and buried her head in her hands, tears of relief and joy and love all mingling to form a river pouring down her face. Shelagh leant into her side, wrapping her arms around her waist and kissing her on the cheek.  
'I've waited so long to hear those words.'  
'Well, now we know about this I'm never going to stop. Besides you were already my mother before this. Patrick and I were debating whether to ask you if you would be willing to be Angela's grandmother anyway.'  
'You were?'  
'Yes. But now you have no choice. I come with baggage now.' Shelagh laughed. 'Not only do you get your daughter back but also a son-in-law, a step grandson and a granddaughter.  
'I'm old aren't I?' Sister Julienne groaned.  
'You're perfect…Mummy dearest.'  
'Oh my.'

* * *

**Probably just one more chapter to go but am in middle of exam revision so who knows when I'll manage it.**

**Reviews appreciated xxxx**


	3. Chapter 3

**For the ones who kept me happy in the midst of my exams. Here's looking at you kids (Hammy google it)**

* * *

'Do you think they're alright in there?' Trixie asked nervously. It had been a good half hour since they had left the newly rediscovered mother and daughter alone in the sitting room but nobody had heard a thing. The building, whilst not quite as echo-y as their old premises, tended to let sound travel so for them to hear nothing was somewhat concerning.  
'I'm sure they're just fine. They're both probably so happy that they do not need to speak.' Patrick smiled sagely as he watched his daughter being tickled by Sister Evangelina.  
'You think Shelagh will have taken this well then?'

'There isn't a single thing in the world that could make her happier right now. It was one of her biggest regrets in life that she never managed to trace her birth mother. Especially after we adopted Angela but she believed both her birth mother and her Mammy would have been happy for her to have found her own quasi-mother in Sister Julienne. She didn't think they would mind that another woman would be a grandmother to their granddaughter. Although that woman really is your granny now little one.' He leant forwards and tweaked his little girls nose before leaning back in his seat.

'It's just so surreal. Wonderful but surreal.' Cynthia gushed.

'Indeed.'

'Perhaps I should stick my head in, make sure they haven't actually fallen out.' Sister Evangelina made to stand but was halted by a hand from Patrick.

'I'll go.' The nun nodded her acquiesence and with a parting kiss to Angela's crown he swept out.

* * *

'Is everyone alright in here?' He asked softly as he entered, spotting his wife and her mother curled up into each other on the settee. Shelagh looked up at his words, absolute joy shining from her face, as Sister Julienne stared down at her with an intense love he'd never seen on her face. The nun tucked an errant lock of Shelagh's disturbed hair back behind her ear before also turning to face the Doctor she had known for so long, had worked beside in all manner of situations, the man who was now her son by law.

'Oh Patrick.' Shelagh sighed. 'I'm so happy.'

'I'm so very happy too. For both of you. This is a wonderful turn of events.'

Isn't it just.' Sister Julienne beamed. 'You realise this makes me your Mother-in-Law don't you?'

'You are far less scary than the last one I assure you.'

'Give it time.' Shelagh laughed.

'I just can't believe it.'

'I know. It is rather unbelievable.'

'But the single greatest thing to happen to me since you were born my darling girl.' Sister Julienne dropped a kiss into her daughters hair.

'I love you so much Mum.'

'I'll leave you two to it. I just wanted to make sure everything was okay.'

'Can you bring Angela in please my love? It's time she had a cuddle from her Nana.'

* * *

'I do believe she has gotten even more beautiful now she's my actual granddaughter. She was the most beautiful child I had ever seen before this but now. My little granddaughter. Hello granddaughter. I'm your Grandma and you are going to know it. The whole of Poplar will soon know how much you and your Mummy mean to me. I love you so much my darling girl. I am always going to be here for you, you can come to me whenever and with whatever-no matter how big or small. I will always watch out for you, I will always pray for you, I will always love you. And I'm going to be the best Nana of all time-you just watch me. Oh little girl you are going to love being my granddaughter. We're going to have such fun together.'

'That was beautiful.' Shelagh beamed through tears of joy.

'She's beautiful. You're beautiful. This family of ours, whether honorary or actual is beautiful. Angela truly will want for nothing.'

'Thank you.'

* * *

Hand in hand with her daughter and with her granddaughter in her arms Sister Julienne walked into the kitchen.

'Sister?' Sister Evangelina smiled cautiously as Shelagh slipped from her mother and into her husbands arms, snuggling into his jumper.

'Yes Sister Evangelina?'

'Are you okay?'

'I can quite honestly say I have never been happier in my life. I have my daughter back.' Even Sister Evangelina couldn't help but feel tears spring to her eyes as her Sister looked proudly at Shelagh.

'I think this calls for a celebration don't you?' Trixie grinned as they all nodded. 'Luckily for you I was gifted a bottle of bubbly earlier.' She poured out their drinks and handed a glass to each person. Sister Julienne held out a hand to her daughter who quickly returned to her arms.

'To Shelagh and Sister Julienne. A wonderful surprise.'

'Shelagh and Sister Julienne' 'Mum and I.' 'My beautiful daughter and I.' They drank.

'So what's your birth name?' Patrick grinned.

'Gosh I forgot to ask! You never wrote it on the note! Mammy and Dad had to name me.' Shelagh turned to her mother intrigued.

'Joanna. Joanna Anwen. It means fair and beautiful gift from God. You had the blondest hair I've ever seen on a person. Almost white it was.' Sister Julienne smiled reminiscently as she trailed her fingers through the now dark blonde hair.

'It stayed that way until I was 15. It darkened seemingly overnight without warning.' Shelagh revealed. 'So…Joanna then. I can see somewhat see myself as a Joanna.'

'You are Shelagh my darling. I wouldn't want you to be anything else. You're perfect.'

'Thank you. Oh Mum.' Shelagh grinned into her mothers shoulder.

'I love you Shelagh Turner. Always.'

FIN

* * *

**aaand scene. That's all folks. I may have a spare scene or two I add in my hundred word fic compilation from this but we'll see.**

**Thank you to everyone who read or reviewed this**

**Reviews appreciated xxx**


End file.
